How to Fill the Skill and Talent Gap in the Industries?

The demand for skilled professionals increasing each passing day and to match the requirement it is important to upgrade our skill sets.

In the fast pace of technological, socio-economic disruption is changing business models and industries, bringing change in the required skillsets that employers seeking and reducing the shelf-life of employees’ existing skills. Around the globe, there is a wide gap between employers’ requirements for skilled professionals and the availability of candidates to fill those roles. And project management has no exception.

There are numerous reasons for the gap:

A rapid growth in the number of jobs requiring skilled professionals.

Attrition rates, including the retirement of experienced professionals.

A significant uptick in demand for talent.

These factors reinforce the role of project managers in every organization. Directly or indirectly, the project is changing our world every day. As a result, the project management skills are at the forefront of substantial opportunity. As opportunities are increasing, much of the experienced professionals are reaching retirement age. These factors create a positive job outlook for highly skilled project professionals. The study conducted in 11 countries, states that by 2027, there will be a requirement for 87.7 million professionals working in project management.

The shortage of qualified professionals led to a notable risk for employers that depend on that talent to design strategic initiatives, deliver innovation and drive change. The same report also states that this talent gap could result in a potential loss of approximately US$207.9 billion in GDP through 2027.

More Job Openings and Wider Range of Roles

With the expansion of project management across the industries, the global economy has become more project-oriented. The project management is expanded in the traditionally less project-oriented sectors as well, such as healthcare, professional services and publishing.

The organizations are adopting technologies and to support them project talent is needed. Organizations are also connecting strategy with action to assure that project benefits are delivered as expected. Attrition, especially as project management practitioners reach retirement age, is deriving many project-related job opportunities. In the manufacturing industry, attrition will open at least 97% positions while in professional services and management firm, you can witness 52% openings for the same reason. The job openings due to attrition and expansion in project-oriented industries from 2017–2027 will be:

IThe 2008 and 2012 analysis found that project-oriented industries are growing large and failure to live the demand for certified practitioners could result in lost economic output by hundreds of billions. This analysis also states that project-oriented jobs would number more than 52.4 million by 2020. However, by early 2017, the number of project management jobs had crossed the estimated number and reached almost 66 million. On an annualized basis, the organizations will require to fill nearly 2.2million new project-oriented roles every year till 2027. And there is an imperative to encourage talent to pursue the project management profession and narrow the talent gap.

To bridge the gap between the demand for certified professionals and desired skill sets, it becomes very important to learn and stay updated with the latest trends and technologies in the project. There are many certifications like CAPM, PMP, PMI-ACP, Lean Six Sigma and many others that will train you to handle the responsibility of projects.